Survivor
by readwithcats
Summary: But he'll survive, that's what Team Seven does after all. (Even if he's a spirit now.) [Dreaming of Sunshine world]


**This came to me on a three hour car trip and so I wrote it on my phone. Hopefully its not too bad. (Also DoS is terrifying in a way, because there are more fics dedicated to it than some fandoms I've been in. Also if you haven't read it, you should.)**

 **I do not own Dreaming of Sunshine or Naruto.**

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 **Survivor**

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Sasuke's dead.

He knows this. After all, he is the one who stabbed himself, so, really, it's not a surprise. What is surprising however, is the fact that he is seeing himself slowly die, the blood oozing from his wound and pooling around his still warm body.

It's vaguely sickening.

He also wonders if this had happened to Shikako, what she would've done. She wouldn't have killed herself, that he could say right off the bat. She might have been killed in a mission gone wrong, though he wasn't sure if he could really call them that seeing as that was every mission they'd been on. It still doesn't answer his question, and if he's honest, he's not sure anybody but Shikako could tell him.

(Later he will laugh bitterly, but for now, it's enough and the thought is flicked away.)

Naruto, well, he's simple. It's no longer holding any malicious intent like it might've during his Academy days, but said rather fondly. Naruto would've found some way to get back into his body, it would've been loud and dramatic, but they would smile and laugh about it later at Shikako's house when they'd have a team dinner.

Or, the more realistic situation, Naruto wouldn't be killed in the first place. Because if Sasuke has learned anything throughout the years, it was that Naruto survived no matter what.

And that had carried on to Team Seven despite being torn apart. They survived, thrived even.

Except—

He is dead and staring at his own corpse as a spirit now.

There are so many things wrong with just that one statement, it's sad.

But before he's given a chance to wallow in his regrets, fists pound on his door and desperate shouting soon fills the air. It doesn't take him but a split-second to recognize who it is.

Shikako.

He's not sure he wants to witness her coming across his dead body, he's only seen her cry a select few times and those have been some of the worst times of his life. His mind made up, he attempts to phase through the concrete wall, but apparently the whole ' _spirits can go through anything_ ' is false. Which is terrible timing to find out, because a bang that sends the wall shaking is a sign that Shikako isn't holding back anymore and he's about to see something he had never planned nor wanted to see.

He's starting to understand why the mission's desk never wanted to see any member of team seven come near them. If this is how each mission they give them go, which is to say, terribly not according to plan.

But just as she rushes in, debris still hanging in the air and a dust cloud wrapping itself around her, there's a tugging sensation in his gut.

Then it gets harder and he's kneeling because of _oh, Kami the pain!_ Every strand of his hair is sticking straight up like when he's practicing a lightning justu and the sensation of something being very, _very_ wrong reminds him of a saying he had once heard.

It's like someone had just walked right over his grave.

But that's obviously not right. His corpse had only just been discovered and is still laying on the floor next to him.

There's a quick _zap!_ and then a smell of something fried. It takes him a moment to realize that something is him judging by his very clearly singed hair. It takes him another moment to realize that he's no longer in his apartment watching Shikako cry over him.

Instead, he's floating above the Hokage monument, directly under Tsunade. While he's not quite sure what happened, he's glad he doesn't have to face his teammate like that.

The relief is rather fleeting, he discovers, when another spirit appears besides him.

A spirit that _looked exactly like Shikako_.

He would deny all of it later- to whom he wasn't sure- but he may have freaked out slightly. Okay, so maybe a lot but could you blame him?

" _What?_ 'Kako! I- _you!_ I..." He trailed off, uncertainly at her unchanging face.

"You can talk?"

"Of course I can talk!" He exclaims though he's not quite sure how having the ability to speak relates to both of them being spirits.

She eyes him, suspiciously but then they widen and she nods almost impeccably to herself. "Ah, you must be new visitor."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He can't help but shout, frustrated by how little information he has and how little leverage. "I'm not new, you've known me since like... forever."

He knows it hasn't been forever, hasn't even been for that long really, and yet when he says it it doesn't feel like a lie. He wonders when he started to think that. Or if there was ever really a starting point in the first place? He doesn't think so.

It just sort of happened, like most things in his life have.

"I just met you."

"...this isn't a joke, Shikako!" His voice is tinge with desperation but he can't stop it.

She just stares at him, "why do you keep calling me that?"

"What? Shikako?" He says it as a joke.

"Yeah."

He just doesn't expect it be right.

"You're kidding, please tell me you're kidding," he's pleading now. She's been his anchor for so long now, especially since Naruto left, and he's forgotten how it used to be.

He can't go back.

"Afraid not. So what world did you come from?" She cocks her head, appraising him. "The last guy who popped up here was depressing. Kept spouting nonsense about having to save the world and a friend or something."

He blinks. That wasn't quite what he had thought she would say. "What world?"

She nods. "I came from this one."

He hates the way she acts like this should help him. "Well you're supposed to be alive, for one."

"I'm alive?" Her eyes are alright with curiosity. "Oh! Was Shikako my name? What was I like?"

It hurts to see her act so similar yet so different, like an echo that's been distorted.

"Yeah, that's your name." His voice most definitely doesn't crack like a thirteen year old pubescent boy. "You were smart."

Had she been standing there, she would've cackled and said something ridiculous like ' _why, Sasuke, I didn't realize you were such a_ smooth _talker._ ' But she's _not_ and it _hurts_.

"We were close?" She sounds like she already knows the answer, and if she's anything like his Shikako, then she does and only wants an affirmative.

He nods stoically. He would have never killed himself to prevent Orochimaru from getting his greedy hands on him if he had known this would happen, because in a way, this is so much _worse_.

Clearing his throat, he ponders aloud. "When did you die?"

 _How_ did you die is what he really wants to ask but it's too personal for someone he just met. (His mind screams at him for calling her a _stranger_ and his heart tightens uncomfortably; his body is betraying him.)

"When the Kyuubi attacked, I died along with all the other chakra sensitive babies at the time." She's emotionless and he's reminded of when she gives a report to the Hokage or even Kakashi-sensei. It's a weird feeling.

A thought comes to him. "I thought spirits don't age."

"They don't," she agrees amiably.

"Then how do-"

"-I age?" she finishes for him and he nods. "Well my theory is that since I died around this age before this life only to die not even three weeks after, I guess my soul remained my mental age."

It takes him longer than a second for her words to click and even longer to make sense of them. Though he's not sure they'll ever make sense.

"That's not normal, I'm guessing?" She looks slightly embarrassed. "I knew it. Getting reborn certainly didn't sound like it but then again being a ghost didn't either."

That was one way to think about it, he supposed, feeling slightly faint. He didn't think he could ever view Shikako's weird knowledge the same again if she had been reborn as well. Which she probably had because it explained a lot—almost more than the questions he now had.

He decides to change the conversation because if they start going down this path he doesn't think they'll ever get out. "So do you keep track of what happens in this world?"

Which is honestly probably the most important question he's ever asked now that he thinks about it. Without Shikako... so many things could've gone wrong.

(This feels like an understatement after he finds out.)

"Yeah, we don't get visitors, spirits from the other worlds, that often and the normal ghost don't talk. They just float around, generally around relatives. I have to find something to keep me entertained and the living works pretty well." She shrugs and waves him over as she turns around. "I'm pretty sure I remember who you are. Caused a whole lot of drama for what was supposed to be my generation."

"Can I call you something other than Shikako?" He blurts out. He doesn't think he can call her that, not when she's not _his_ Shikako.

She acquiesce, "sure. I mean, I just found out it was my name."

"Did you have something else you were going by?"

"Not really but some of the visitors call me Michi."

As much as he'd liked to say referring to her as Michi helps, it doesn't. She's still Shikako, even if she's not _his_ , but he's not ready. Doesn't think he'll ever be. Doesn't think she'll mind either, and in a weird, twisted way, it hurts the most.

"You're Sasuke right?" He gives a short nod. "Well, I don't know if you'll like this, but you left the village and followed a creepy ass guy called Orochimaru."

It feels like his world is collapsing as his worst fears come true and he wonders as his ears _screech_ like he's underwater how Shi- _Michi_ can just stand there like she's talking about a movie. Maybe it's because to her, she is. Her whole life (or is it death?) has been spent focused on these people and maybe after so long, she stopped seeing them as people.

His heart is convulsing in his mouth and if he says even one word, it'll hop right out and leave him for dead.

(Is it bad that he wishes it does?)

"Are you okay?" Her voice comes in strange waves, going in and out in tune with his thudding heart.

He forces himself to take a breath and then another and another till it's becoming a steady beat that's keeping him anchored. Soon he feels good enough to talk. "I'm... I'm fine."

He's not though.

But that's alright because he doesn't think ever be. Not in this world, not in any other world but his own.

He doesn't know much; in fact, what he does know sends shivers down his spine. But he'll survive, that's what Team Seven does after all.

(Even if he's a spirit now.)

.

 **Review? Please?**

 **Should I continue it or leave it as it is?**


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